The Mongol Empire and the Making of the Modern World

Vocabulary flashcards covering the rise, expansion, administration, key leaders, and legacy of the Mongol Empire based on lecture notes.

Pastoral Nomads

Small, mobile clans in 12th-century Mongolia whose members were expected to be skilled horse riders and coveted the wealth southern tribes gained from the Silk Road.

Kuriltai

A meeting where Mongol clans vote for a new khan by showing up in person; Temujin was elected khan of the Mongolian Kingdom at a kuriltai in 1206.

Genghis Khan

Born as Temujin in 1162, he formed key alliances, created a meritocracy, was elected supreme ruler in 1206, and launched conquests expanding the empire from the North China Sea to Eastern Persia.

Mongol Military Decimal Organization

An efficient command structure based on units of ten: an Arban (10 soldiers), a Jegun (10 Arbans), a Mingan (10 Jeguns), and a Tumen (10 Mingans).

Feigned Retreat Tactics

A Mongol surprise strategy where a small token force encounters the enemy and retreats to lure pursuers into an ambush, where hidden forces attack the enemy's flank while the token force turns to attack their front.

Pax Mongolica

A period of Eurasian peace and stability established under Mongol rule, during which trade routes along the Silk Road were defended by Mongol soldiers and revitalized.

Karakorum

The capital city of the Mongol Empire constructed during the peaceful reign of Genghis Khan.

Uyghur Alphabet Adaptation

An initiative ordered by Genghis Khan in 1204 in which a captured scribe adapted the Uyghur alphabet to write the Mongolian language.

Four Khanates

The regional realms formed after Genghis Khan died in 1227 and his empire was divided among his descendants: the Chagatai, Ilkhans, Golden Horde, and Yuan Dynasty.

Batu

A grandson of Genghis Khan who led the Golden Horde to invade Russia starting in 1236, destroying Kiev in 1240 and defeating a joint Polish, German, and French army.

Golden Horde

Batu's army and the western Mongol khanate that ruled Russia indirectly by collecting tribute.

Battle of Kulikovo

A 1380 battle in which Russian forces led by Moscow defeated the troops of the Golden Horde.

Hulegu

A grandson of Genghis Khan who invaded the Abbasid Caliphate in 1258, established the Ilkhanate, and converted to Islam.

Ilkhanate

The Mongol realm extending from Byzantium to Central Asia where local Persians served as ministers and officials.

Kublai Khan

A grandson of Genghis Khan who became Great Khan in 1260, conquered the Song Dynasty between 1235 and 1279, and established the Yuan Dynasty in 1271.

Yuan Dynasty

The Mongol-led dynasty in China established by Kublai Khan in 1271, featuring religious tolerance, economic prosperity, and improved social standing for women.

White Lotus Society

A secret organization formed in the 1350s to organize a rebellion to overthrow the Yuan Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang

A Buddhist monk who led the revolt that successfully overthrew the Yuan Dynasty.

Tamerlane

Also known as Timur the Lame, the Central Asian conqueror whose Timurid Empire expanded into former Mongol lands and seized territories from the Chagatai Khanate.

Mongol Cultural Exchange

The Eurasian cross-cultural diffusion facilitated during Pax Mongolica, transferring Islamic science, Chinese paper, Greco-Islamic medical knowledge, and Arabic numerals across regions.

Wsewolodovics

The younger Russian duke in Baron Nicholas Jósika's novel who characterized the Mongols as unchivalrous, destructive, and faithless conquerors.